Full time workers in the UK spend most of their waking lives at work. Keep up to date with your rights and with any changes that may affect you at work.
- April 2020 National Living Wage to increase by 6.2%
- April 2020 New rules for Written Statements of Terms and Conditions
- April 2020 Changes to the Reference Period for calculating holiday pay when the Employee doesn’t work the same hours each week
- April 2020 Introduction of Parental Bereavement Leave
- April 2020 IR35 Legislation extended to the Private Sector.
National Living Wage to increase by 6.2% on 6th April 2020. This is likely to have a significant impact on industries such as Manufacturing and Hospitality, who employ large number of unskilled workers at this level. New rates will be:
- National Living Wage for ages 25 and over – up 6.2% to £8.72
- National Minimum Wage for 21 to 24-year olds – up 6.5% to £8.20
- For 18 to 20-year olds – up 4.9% to £6.45
- For under-18s – up 4.6% to £4.55
- For apprentices in first year aged under 19 – up 6.4% to £4.15
For employees aged 25 and above working 40 hours per week, the new basic annual salary will be £18,138 so employers should make time over the next few weeks to carry out an audit on their payroll to make sure any employee being paid above National Living Wage (currently £8.21) but less than £8.72, is identified and included in the increases in April.
Written Statements of Terms and Conditions or, as they are more often known, Contracts of Employment, must be issued to new employees within 8 weeks of the start of their employment, but from 6th April, this will be a “first day right.” In other words, every new employee must be given their Contract on the first day of employment at the latest.
Contractual changes for existing employees must be confirmed in writing within one month under current legislation but, again, from 6th April this will become a Day One right – this means letters confirming changes to rates of pay following National Minimum Wage increases must be given to those affected no later than 6th April.
By the same date, employers must include in all Contracts the following additional information:
- The days of the week the employee will be expected to work
- Whether days or hours are variable and, if so, the basis on which they will be determined
- All benefits provided by the employer as well as Salary, e.g., Maternity Pay, and Paternity Pay
- Probationary period details including duration and conditions for passing
- Details of training entitlement and mandatory training necessary (including mandatory training not funded by the employer)
- Notice period required to terminate employment
For the first time, the right to a written statement will be extended to workers as well as employees, particularly affecting those working in the so-called Gig Economy.
Holiday Pay for shift workers, those on zero hour contract and anyone who does not work the same number of hours each week is currently worked out by using the average of the previous 12 weeks immediately prior to the holiday – this is known as the “pay reference period.” From 6th April, the pay reference period will be extended to 52 weeks or, for employees with less than 52 weeks service, the total number of weeks they have worked.
Whilst this change has been introduced to account for seasonal variations and avoid workers losing out where there are fluctuations in their hours of work, potentially the cost of holiday pay may increase for some employers. Holiday pay for holidays taken in the summer has not previously been affected by high overtime at Christmas for example, but this will now fall into any calculations.
Introduction of Parental Bereavement Leave, known as Jack’s Law, for “primary carers” who tragically lose a child under the age of 18, or a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Employees with at least 26 weeks’ service will receive at least 2 weeks paid leave at the statutory rate and those without the qualifying service can take the same leave unpaid.
The right to take Maternity Leave in the event of a stillbirth will be unaffected and the new Parental Bereavement Leave will be in addition to this.
IR35 Legislation is already in place for the Public Sector but will be extended to include medium and large businesses in the Private Sector in April. Businesses that use sub-contractors will be expected to determine whether IR35 applies. If it does, the business will place the contractor onto their payroll and will deduct income tax and National Insurance before paying the contractor.
If a contractor is operating through an intermediary, such as a limited company, and other than for that intermediary they would be an employee of their client, IR35 kicks in.
However, at the time of writing the implementation has been delayed by approximately one month as it will now only affect payments for work carried out after 6th April, whereas it was originally going to be for payments made after 6th April which would have resulted in the ruling being applied around now. And there is a school of thought that the delay will become permanent, but if you are a sub-contractor working for a medium or large organisation you should still keep this one on your radar as it is for the organisation to determine your status.
